Since the writers have their own writing critique section and a multitude of password protected critique sites, I thought the artists could use a thread that compiles resources for getting critiques and honing their craft.

http://www.conceptart.org is a pretty amazing website across the board for learning. You can get some extremely helpful advice there, along with access to loads of tutorials.

Does anybody know of any groups that do critiques?

Lastly, I don't know of any password protected ones. At the moment I'm sort of paralyzed as far as posting anything publicly for critique because my sketches become pieces which become entries, and I don't want to get disqualified.

Thanks for the link. Unfortunately I don't have any of my own to contribute.

And I know what you mean about posting! I've only got two things on public display right now, because I know I'll never send them to the contest--one I can't for copyright reasons, and one's too much of a portrait to be an appropriate entry piece. All the others are hanging around, waiting to be revealed...

In the past, I have posted art at Baen's Bar--and it is password protected. The only thing is that not many people comment in that particular forum: Baen Bar Art. I did post one of my IOTF submissions there and although it only received one comment (from Edith) by seeing it posted, I realized I needed to make changes for the final version--the version I sent off to the contest.

MJNL wrote:Thanks for the link. Unfortunately I don't have any of my own to contribute.

And I know what you mean about posting! I've only got two things on public display right now, because I know I'll never send them to the contest--one I can't for copyright reasons, and one's too much of a portrait to be an appropriate entry piece. All the others are hanging around, waiting to be revealed...

Pat R Steiner wrote:In the past, I have posted art at Baen's Bar--and it is password protected. The only thing is that not many people comment in that particular forum: Baen Bar Art. I did post one of my IOTF submissions there and although it only received one comment (from Edith) by seeing it posted, I realized I needed to make changes for the final version--the version I sent off to the contest.

MJNL wrote:Thanks for the link. Unfortunately I don't have any of my own to contribute.

And I know what you mean about posting! I've only got two things on public display right now, because I know I'll never send them to the contest--one I can't for copyright reasons, and one's too much of a portrait to be an appropriate entry piece. All the others are hanging around, waiting to be revealed...

That's awesome! Which piece was it?

Maybe we could do an artist critique exchange here on the boards through PMs or something so people can get feedback? I'd be willing to lend an eye if anyone needs it. And heaven knows my own work could use some help, ha!

Canotila wrote:Maybe we could do an artist critique exchange here on the boards through PMs or something so people can get feedback? I'd be willing to lend an eye if anyone needs it. And heaven knows my own work could use some help, ha!

Me too! Me two! I'd be happy to eyeball and give honest feedback on anything that anyone's thinking of sending to IotF too.

We all know how sometimes just having a fresh set of eyes see something for the first time ... can reveal something a little "off" that we ourselves miss after the X-teenth revision! *

Always eager to lend a hand and help out the contests and contestants ...

* Speaking for myself, in my early submissions I more than once had issues playing with (or without) perspective and my tendency to purposefully "flatten" and then "stack" elements more like graphic design than illustration (the old debate about seeing the page as a 2-D surface, or a "window" looking into a 3-D space, etc)

You get divergent opinions when you do that, and having several opinions can tell you whether it's "wrong" or merely a knowing "choice" (Do you want someone's hallucinations to appear 'realistic' or 'trippy and distorted' ... and where's the line between those, in the average audience's eyes, etc)

'The only tyrant we accept in this world is the still voice within.' -GandhiIOTF:Winner Q1 vol.27 (3x Finalist); WOTF: HM x2

Awesome! And thanks for the info Scott. I think that's what went wrong with my entries the first time. They were too portrait-esque.

Currently I struggle with color. I love working in it, but one eye sees things in a different tint than the other so I never know if it's "true" or not when other people see it. It's always going to be a struggle, which is why having someone look at a piece is always helpful before making adjustments.

I'm probably slightly off and askew, colour-wise, myself. I'm always discussing whether a thing is blue or green or ... But that's a male thing in more ways than one too: ask a male and he'll know about three different kinds of blue or green; ask a woman and she'll often know ten or twenty different colour names for it.

At the workshop, one of our hugely successful and knowledgeble instructors, Vincent Di Fate, gave us a slideshow of the history of sci-fi illustrators ... It's great to see amazing art by artists you've never seen, or loved their image but never knew their names ... and I recall him mentioning another successful illustrator LEO SUMMERS (from the 60's or '70's I think) who was basically colour blind, in a big way ... but was successful by working in b&w. He did some colour work but ... well ... apparently his alien sense of colours found a home in alien art!

I'd suggest that Vincent Di Fate's book on the history of sci-fi art, INFINITE WORLDS, is a wonderful book to get an overview of the genre's amazing artists!

Thanks for the book recommendation! I'll track down a copy when the paycheck comes in, or maybe put it on the Christmas list. That's pretty encouraging. I feel like most of my black and white stuff just isn't... refined. Or something.

Blah. Just want to get the results from Q3 back so I can know if it's safe to post WIPs on other forums to get help with them or not. lol